The Dillon tribune., 1887-09-02
A LAUGHING WORLD.
DIFFERENT WAYS THE NATIONS
HAVE OF SHOWING R,sIB,Lt7y.

The CHINESE litter. the Germans arc Do.
liher"tc, the Frcncl, Spa.,nndic-vash.
i":ton'~ iau-',-Thc Bible ami Poets.
Use cf the WORD.
OF the worlds population ,ho,. who in
not laugh are. i, is safe to assume. in the
minority. Laughter is !, language kno,,,
to all races in all lands. From tn. re-
sounding ''haw haw'' "i the male New
Englandtr to The hig1, strung ca,hinna
ton OF Tive south Sea- islander, there NAV
be as wide !: tia',Et vt int"naiion and cx.
p.esso, a. there. is nf cthnolocical posi
tlon; hut as y rule laughter means but
one 1hing--thc tickling OF the fancy of the
person who laughs. Six Years ago Bcccler
asked from, Il lecture platform in New
York If any ct his hearers had ever heard
Chinese laugh. the question being
wori"l in Il wa! Intended 10 imply q
negative answer. That the Celestial can
ami does give vent to his mirthful feel.
1nGS after the manner Of other mortals
can readily he attcsteu by any one who
las long resided in San Francisco. To hc
h,1rc- the Chinese laugh is rarely as hearty
or expressive us the American or
European. IT, is oftcner Il litter than u
genuine. Outbur>t OF ncrriment There
il little character or force in it. AZ for
the Arabian laugh, we hear little Of its
hilarious ring through the ages OF m,rtn
in the Old World Tho Arab is generally
looked upon as . Stolid fellow-a mau
likely to persist IN refusing to give bl. the
benefit OF Il mirthful appreciation cf
joke, even II he saw he point. Travellers
say, however, that he does laugh rn t,ccu
sion, but that he mus, either sc. yne.i rca.
son for 1t beforehand or l,c surprised into
1t. In Persia II man who laughs il. com
si,lcrc.l eftcninate, bu! free license is said
to Ec given I" female mcrrim=nt. Fred
l3urnaby has written vi his experiences
among the laughing beauties Of Il certain
district III the northern part Of that country
lie says that under cover Of the good nature
implied by their pretended jolljty, they
make bold to filcl. everything II traveller
may have in his possession. One reads Of
the grave Turk and the '.sober Egyp-
tian, but it il not recorded that they never
have moments Of mirth---when the fez
hObs or the veil shakes under pressure Of
some particularly ''good thing" In Ma
Aonct l,:u@c!f Christian writer's have
noted cor,liality aud jocoscncsa, aud they
say there was Il good ringing laugh in the
prophet with all his seriousness.
An .Atncrican traveller III Europe re.
marks the Italian laugh as languid but
musical, the German as deliberate the
French rs spasmoslic and uncertai,., tho
upper class English rs well guarded and
not always genuine, the lower class Eng.
lish as explosive, the Scotch Of III classes
as hearty, and the lrisl, as rollickiug.
There is much that is indicative Of char
actcr in the laugh Of some people, while
in others Ut strong personality the laugh
is the weakest und most characterless
az, t1>.,, Ia os>s1 r,f
that his laugh was often without spirit.
Napoleon laughed little, and not always
ut things in which men Of his command
ing dignity might bo expected to find any
thing funny. When Washington cared to
break through his natural reserve. he
| could laugh ns long and as loud as any
one, but his biographcrs record but few
instances Of the display Of jocularity OF,
| the part Of tho father Of his country. a
! laughing president does not cut !, very
elignitied figure before one who IS I'M.
pressed with the belief that sc,latencss is
a necessary attribute of Il governlnent's 's
chief executive, yet Lincoln, made bold "a
laugh whenever he chose, always wclcom-
ing Il good story teller, and re!ating with
much good feeling droll tales OF his own
life. Webster could tell a good story,
often ut his own expense, and join heartily
|
He had y true laugh. There are those
men, as Carlyle has tritcly remarked,
whose laugh is As untrue aS anything
about them.
In the Bible the words ''!augh, v
slaughter and laughing occur only
thirteen times, which, while in keeping
with tho gravity of the text, is considered
| by some commentators as rather singular.
Milton makes little use of the word in
his works. Shakespeare employs It tre'
qutntly and often epigra,nnGaticaliy. Ten,
ny>on's men and women laugh infre'
qnently, although they sometimes smile.
Dickens made Il great deal ct the laugh
and often managed thereby to give the
reader Il clew t. the character of HI. mei
and women
Like the carc::i student of human MI
| turc that sh>. was. George Elio: made note
of the Thousand AMI ono ways in whic!!
character discloscs itself through III,
medium 1T the laugh.
IL ,hi, merry age Il good laagh is proba
| bly, enjoyed rs much as it ever was III tht
worlds history. But what would make t
man laugh ten or twenty years ago "anilo'
be relied upon to do sn now. Practical
jokes, for instance, are no longer popular
and witticisms Of tho studied order. "Eel
in comic opera or burles;nr, often fail O.
appreciatiou And there is the t;iif.rrnc'
in national taste. \ Joke that sets N. Eng
lshmln or :; German r'@riny is nint
times on; of ten voted ;amc, ii not stupid
by the American. Our modern wits rel!
less upon cap and bells than upon ';cel
satire and quick r"parlec, The laust
thus created is always spontaneous, ant
whether in senate chamber nr c"ar. o
inSti,.. IL i; ir.rnrcSSihle